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What’s New in Google Analytics, and Why It Matters for Higher Education

Intelligence

What’s New in Google Analytics, and Why It Matters for Higher Education

May 18, 2016By Greg Zguta

The beauty, and sometimes the pain, of an evolving web platform like Google Analytics is periodic updates to the tool. Reports are moved or renamed. “Profiles” become “views.” The Google Analytics blog reports on some of the bigger updates, but most higher ed pros don’t have the bandwidth to frequently monitor this resource.

[Tweet “Four changes to Google Analytics and what these changes mean for #highered. #mStoner”]

Let’s review four important changes to Google Analytics and what these changes mean for .edu.

1. Google Analytics 360 Suite

In March 2016, Google bundled its premium versions of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager with new A/B testing tools, data analysis, and more features into a suite of premium products branded as Google Analytics 360. Available for a fee, this suite represents an evolution to a more complete, enterprise-level analytics platform.

For those of us in higher education using the free version of Google Analytics, the announcement of these tools (luckily!) doesn’t change anything immediately. The paid version of Google Analytics primarily provides higher levels of data processing useful for very high-traffic sites. While Google Analytics 360 can roll up data from different properties, the reports you get are the same from a reporting standpoint.

I expect that higher education will continue to use the free version of Google Analytics for the foreseeable future, but the move to a 360 Suite signals the future of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager as parallel products, with free and paid versions sharing features.

2. Google Tag Manager Fundamentals training course from Google

Google’s online training program for Google Analytics has been available for a while, but Google has added new course content specifically for Google Tag Manager. Released last year as a scheduled offering, Google Tag Manager training is now available on demand.

Tag Manager is an increasingly popular way to manage analytics code for higher education sites. If you’re using multiple sites and multiple analytics tools, Tag Manager is a valuable resource. But it requires training. These online courses are a great, free way for higher education pros to tap into Tag Manager training and evolve how analytics code is deployed.

3. The new Google Analytics mobile app

A mobile app for iOS and Android has existed for a while, but the new version released last month has more promise than ever. It’s free, easy to connect with via your Google account and provides access to all your properties and views, with mobile-native versions of reports — including real-time reporting.

For web managers in higher education, the full browser version of Google Analytics is still the place to go for most of your analytics reporting (and don’t forget about the plugin for Google Spreadsheets). However, the new mobile app provides quick access to top level reports, and it’s easy to share content on your mobile device. It’s worth a look if you access analytics on a regular basis and customize dashboards for quick access to key data.

4. Education benchmarking reports

Analytics benchmarks for education are helpful in providing context for the basic metrics within Google Analytics — great for someone just getting started looking at web analytics. They are found in the Audience > Benchmarking reporting area within the Google Analytics navigation.

The data evolves in these reports. Even if you’ve looked at them before, it’s interesting to revisit based on current data for your site and the benchmark pool. Be sure to filter the report to view the industry vertical, most likely: Jobs & Education > Education > Colleges & Universities

Be sure to experiment with your ability to filter within industry verticals by location (including state) and size of the site (in terms of daily traffic). The reporting interface will show the number of sites the benchmarking data comes from.

On the left in the Benchmarking menu, you’ll see reports for:

  • Channels. This shows how top-level metrics for sessions, pages/session, session duration, and bounce rate compare with other institutions across the sources of traffic for your site.
  • Location. Use this report to break down visitors to your site from different countries across the same metrics.
  • Mobile. Break out the top level metrics by desktop, mobile, and tablet traffic to your site.

Keep up with what’s new

Google will continue to evolve its analytics offerings. As the dust settles on Google Analytics 360, expect changes to continue to trickle into the free Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

Sign up now for our analytics mailing list, and you’ll receive periodic emails about the latest and greatest in web analytics for higher education.


  • Greg Zguta Director of Web Strategy I've been working on education web projects since the late 90's and enjoy visiting campuses and watching how technology has transformed higher education since I got my first email account at Oberlin College in 1992. Back then, I mostly used the web to check weather radar and sports scores . . . I suppose technology hasn't transformed everything yet.